Thousands across Gaza celebrate ceasefire deal

Crowds of Gazans chanted and embraced on Wednesday as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory.

After a US official and a source close to the negotiations first revealed the agreement, Israel cautioned that several points "remain unresolved" that it hoped would be addressed.

But celebrations were already underway in Gaza, where AFP journalists saw crowds of people hugging and taking photos to mark the announcement.

"I can't believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we've lost everything," said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old who was displaced from Gaza City to the Nuseirat Camp in the centre of the territory.

"We need a lot of rest. As soon as the truce begins, I will go to the cemetery to visit my brother and family members. We buried them in Deir el-Balah cemetery without proper graves. We will build them new graves and write their names on them."

- Drums and chants -

Outside Deir al-Balah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where so many of the war's casualties have been taken, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to chant, sing and wave flags, AFPTV footage showed.

At one point, a member of the crowd and a journalist in body armour were raised on people's shoulders to conduct an interview above the mass of elated Gazans.

As an ambulance squeezed through the crowd to reach the hospital, smiling men and women alike chanted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest" in Arabic, and waved the Palestinian flag.

Young children, some looking confused by the commotion, gathered outside the hospital too, milling between adults and watching as they gave interviews to the waiting media.

A gaggle of young boys in the centre of the crowd led a popular pro-resistance chant as adults filmed the moment on their phones.

Large crowds also gathered in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, with young men surfing through the crowd on the shoulders of others beating drums and cheering, an AFP photographer saw.

In one part of the city, the crowd cheered as a vehicle driven by Palestinian militants slowly wound through the streets, with fighters standing in its open sliding doors waving their AK-47s.

- Bittersweet -

In Gaza City, 27-year-old Abdul Karim said: "I feel joy despite everything we've lost."

"I can't believe I will finally see my wife and two children again," he added. "They left for the south almost a year ago. I hope they allow the displaced to return quickly."

Still wearing his scrubs, doctor Fadel Naeem told AFP he had mixed feelings -- both "sadness for those we lost", and "indescribable joy for the end of this massacre".

In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, some residents handed out sweets and hugged each other in the main square, though no large crowds gathered Wednesday night.

Omar Assaf, a Ramallah resident, told AFP from Al-Manara Square that he saw the deal as a victory for Palestinians.

"After 15 months of destruction, killing, genocide and unprecedented crimes, the resistance stands tall, raising its head, and raising the head of the entire Palestinian people," he told AFP.

The deal agreed on Wednesday is expected to halt the fighting in the devastated Palestinian territory for an initial 42 days, with 33 hostages held in Gaza released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

© Agence France-Presse